Boxee 1.5 Will Be the Last Supported Desktop Version 113
DeviceGuru writes with excerpts from the article: "Boxee released [a beta of] version 1.5 of its free multimedia streaming software for Mac, Windows, and Linux desktops today, but simultaneously announced that it will cease offering the Boxee desktop software after January. Thereafter, the company will limit its focus to devices such as the D-Link Boxee Box, which faces stiff competition from multimedia streaming TV set-top-box products such as the Roku players, Google TV, and Apple TV. Hopefully, the XBMC project, on which Boxee's software is largely based, will carry the ball forward for desktop users. Speaking of which, the first preview release of XBMC 11.0 Eden was just released."
Great... (Score:5, Informative)
They have a lot of work to do if they want to be in the media center market.
Re:Will someone produce a cable card rival to TIVO (Score:4, Informative)
Support for the ceton card was recently added to mythtv (trunk). So there's work on it.
And the HDHomeRun Prime has worked with linux since day one. So has the DCR-something or other from Hap-screw-their-shitty-name.
The only restriction is DRM Encumbered channels. If you're on Time Warner Cable - that's all of them. If you're on comcast, it's just the premiums (hbo, cinemax, showtime, starz, encore). If you're on verizon fios, I read that everything is marked as Copy Freely - so no DRM to deal with.
Re:Competition from who??? (Score:5, Informative)
I think the answer is "it depends what you want to do." I had the opportunity to purchase and review 9 different media streaming devices. This is what I came away with:
WD TV Live HD: Has a wonderful interface for streaming services like Youtube and Pandora, and it does DLNA very well. Very good support for music without playlists (many DLNA streamers just want to play single tracks or tracks on a DLNA-shared playlist). But I couldn't get one to negotiate a 1080p connection with my bog-standard 1080p Toshiba TV despite switching cables and several different firmware revisions on two different units. I also found that navigating the user interface was slow and occasionally non-responsive.
Seagate has a very similar set of products. I only took a cursory look at a cheap FreeAgent Theater, found that it errored out when I tried to stream something from my DLNA server and set it aside.
Roku XD: Streams the stuff it streams. Doesn't technically do DLNA or allow access to local network content, though there is a DLNA-like application you can run on a Windows machine to sorta stream some content. I was really unimpressed. But at least it does 1080p.
Popcorn Hour C200: DLNA client, DLNA server. Has a local drive bay and USB ports to add storage. Supports every audio and video format known to man. Will auto-rip content if you put an optical drive in it. Has a great collection of free streaming services and network connectivity options... and a dreadfully slow user interface and no access to any sort of premium streaming options.
Boxee: I actually like the UI and social hooks. I like the variety of support for network connectivity and the overall speed of the UI. But oddly enough, it doesn't do UPNP or DLNA, something I ulimately confirmed with DLink. It has excellent file format support, a decent user interface for network browsing and for music playback, and I love the remote, but there are enough weird drawbacks that it feels like an unfinished product, especially at $150 or so. I'll also say that the Windows version of the software would regularly spike an i7-2600 to 100% CPU utilization across all cores, all by itself.
LG Smart TV Upgrader (Sony and several other companies sell identical devices): Accesses premium streaming services just fine. Supports Plex, as of the most recent update; the one at my parents' house can stream movies from my apartment 700 miles away. Fuss-free DLNA support and it kind-of manages SMB support as well. Dirt cheap, but the UI is ugly, slow and somewhat non-intuitive. Music support is particularly crappy and the remote is not that good either. Still, for $50, they do what I want them to to do.
Vortexbox: I set up a Vortexbox, thinking it would be an STB solution. It's a DLNA/AFP/SMB server that auto-rips stuff to FLAC or MKV and makes it available to other systems on a LAN. It's meant to be appliance-like. It worked OK for its intended purpose, but to my annoyance the install scripts assume there's only one storage drive and don't make provisions for expansion, meaning that it's basically a less-functional version of a Popcorn Hour C200.
PS3/Xbox360. Theses things can be used as streaming clients with obnoxious control devices and poor user interfaces. I'm sure it's great if you're used to it, but I found them lacking.
The great unknown for me is the Logitech Revue. They're cheap now, and I understand that they're essentially Android 3.1 devices. I would assume that I can get any sort of premium streaming on them, since all that stuff works on my Android phone, and I should have my pick of third-party media players if I don't like the ones it ships with. I don't know about the actual TV integration, but I don't really care about that aspect either.
At the end of the day, I liked the LG Smart TV Upgrader better than the others. I had too many problems with the WD TV Live HD and the Boxee needed to cost about half what it does in order to be competitive. Maybe this new focus on the hardware will fix some of the issues.
DRM, the bane of progress and freedom (Score:5, Informative)
Digital Restriction Management indeed...
DRM is the reason Netflix isn't available o Linux.
DRM takes the customer as the enemy so there can't be FOSS DRM. (pirates don't suffer from DRM)
DRM hardware chips enable device makers to leverage the free work of the FOSS community without actually giving anything back.
Without allowing people to use their computer as they want.
DRM hardware is what enables TiVos and Roku boxes to function.
I have no doubt DRM hardware is the reason Boxee is leaving desktop users out in the cold.
DRM is the reason XBMC can't play blueray discs or Netflix.
It's the reason device makers manage to monopolise the market, by rising the cost for small players and making it impossible to play nice for independent and home-made players.
Without DRM there would be a revolution in Media players and Media Centers, In fact there is already one, it's just either illegal or nearly frozen.
Ultimately DRM attacks the wrong end of the distribution chain. IDIOTS! I WANT TO PAY FOR THIS STUFF, what are you afraid I might do with your stream? Post it online? There is no need! IT IS ALREADY ONLINE! I can stream it from anywhere in the world into the very same media center you don't want me to use to consume your damn service.
Imbecile Mother Fuckers.
xbmc is all you need anyway (Score:5, Informative)
I tried out several software suites for my HTPC and ultimately ended up with XBMC.
There's enough free content that if you're a casual TV watcher you can get away without it. There's a "free cable" plugin that pulls in a bunch of channels, along with hulu free (of course, who knows how long that will exist).
I use amazon prime to get all the "free" prime movies/shows and that is another ton of content.
Unfortunately blockbuster isn't working but I believe Netflix does on windows ( don't have that ). It's silverlight.
There are tons of handy plugins. Anything from adult plugins (pr0n) to academic earth.
I drive it all from my harmony remote, audio passthrough through video hdmi out to receiver.
Once I get mythtv going to record football I'm going to (finally) cancel comcast. I hope that one day HBO / Showtime will smarten up and offer modular monthly subscriptions, instead of requiring you use a federated login based on your cable/dish provider. Lame.
XBMC is flexible/hackable enough to make me happy since I can make most anything work, but presents media simply enough my computer illiterate girlfriend can drive it all. Win.